


Preposterous

by reddies_eggos1711



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 2018 me was all about the cute, El and Max are friends, El being s2 babie, El is excited and express herself how she does with Mike, El likes Mike, F/F, F/M, Max likes El, Mike needs to have a serious conversation with El, because we vibe, elmax - Freeform, instead Max does, she's not with Mike tho, she's with Max, so time for a talk, studying science terms so El might be allowed to attend a class at school with them, wholesome I guess, written before s3 came out (like circa early 2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:15:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23956741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddies_eggos1711/pseuds/reddies_eggos1711
Summary: Science is hard, El decides. So when she reaches a milestone in her learning, she celebrates how she usually does with when she's with Mike.Only she's not with Mike. She's with Max.Max has to have a talk with her as to why kissing should be reserved for her boyfriend.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	Preposterous

**Author's Note:**

> another 2018 fic i found y'all. she be kinda cute so we be posting. elmax tho amirite??

“Max, I don’t think I can do it!”

Max frowned. They’d been practising El’s English skills for quite a while now and she was starting to tire from the repetitiveness. “I know it’s been a while but you’re so close. You can’t give up now!”

“I can’t do it, Max! I can’t even remember the words! How can I spell them and tell you what they mean?!” She threw her pencil across the room folding her arms over her chest.

Max knew she wasn’t like this with Mike. He made her feel safe, happy. Max made her feel inadequate. Not on purpose, she just had that vibe. Sure, they were really good friends! That’s why Mike had asked if she would take over their usual lessons while he was sick. Things were just different with max than they were with Mike.

“I know it’s hard, El. Learning things always is. But if you want to come to school and do science with us, you’re gonna need to know some of these words.”

El scowled. “I _can’t_.”

Max winced. She hated seeing her friend upset. El was the only female friend Max had and pretty much the only girl she actually liked. Max had always tended to steer more towards the boys for friends because girls had always been such bitches. But not El. El was different. El was _special_. Max didn’t exactly know why, but she’d always liked El slightly more than the others. And when she found success, Max celebrated with her. When she felt hurt, Max wanted to kill whoever hurt her. She knew technically that was supposed to be the job of the boyfriend, but she didn’t care. El meant a lot to her and she didn’t want to ruin their friendship. Especially not over something as stupid as science terminology.

“That’s okay then, El. We’ll just take a break for now and –”

“No! Because then I can’t go to school because I’m stupid! It’s stupid, and preposterous and I _can’t_ do it!”

 _Preposterous?_ She remembered that word? Max had only briefly suggested what it meant when she was complaining about the lack of food in her house earlier.

“It’s all stupid! I’m stupid! Deoxyribonucleic acid is stupid! My brain is stupid!”

Max froze. “Wait, deoxyribonucleic acid?”

El groaned. “Ugh, DNA – whatever it’s called – it’s all stupid and I hate it!”

El looked on the verge of tears now. Max wanted more than anything to wrap her up and tell her how great she was, but she couldn’t move.

“El, did you hear what you just said?” She managed to gape.

“I said this was stupid!”

“No, El! You said, ‘deoxyribonucleic acid’ and ‘preposterous’! Do you remember what they mean?!”

“DNA is the gene thing. The codes to our body. And preposterous means really bad. Why? It’s all stupid anyway?” She pouted shrinking into herself.

Max just stared at her, half in shock, half in awe, waiting for her to hit that lightbulb moment.

It took a while but, after sitting in the silence for a bit, Max watched in delight as El’s face lit up and she grinned.

“I remembered science words. And big words! And I didn’t even have to think about it! Max, I did it!”

Max didn’t care how much more she had to learn, El had reached a milestone and Max was irrepressibly proud at that moment.

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, you did, El! It was amazing!”

“I did it, I did it, I did it!” She beamed, raising herself from her sulking position on the floor and bounding across to Max. “I did it! Can you believe it!?”

Then came the part that Max never could’ve prepared for, no matter how hard she tried.

El lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Max’s neck, before forcefully pressing her lips to the redhead’s.

Max remained completely still, eyes wide in surprise and uncertainty. Max noticed how the girl’s lips were strangely warm despite how many cold smoothies she’d had since being there. She also noticed how El lifted herself higher so she was in control. In control of what? Max couldn’t exactly tell. The last thing Max noticed was how good El was at whatever she was doing. She’d clearly done this a lot. Max didn’t know why but she’d never experienced anything quite like that with Lucas.

El pulled apart, unwinding her hands from Max’s neck, still beaming from ear to ear.

“I did it,” She whispered one last time before moving back to where she sat earlier.

El seemed nowhere near even the thought process of what just happened, so it was completely on Max to ask what the hell it was.

“El?”

The girl’s grin didn’t move an inch.

“What was that?”

“What was what?” This time it faltered slightly, as she cocked her head.

Max gestured between the two of them. “What was _that_? That you just did?”

El’s face lit up in realisation. “Oh! It’s what I do with Mike when I’m really excited! And I’m _really_ excited!”

Max’s heart sunk a little. Had Mike really not had this conversation with her yet? She’d have to have a little ‘talk’ with him later. But for now, El.

“El, I’m so proud of you. You know that, right?”

She nodded.

“And I still will be, but we need to get serious for a moment.”

El’s expression dropped. “Not more science terms?”

“No, no, no! You’ve done enough of them today. No, this is about what just happened. The kiss.”

She looked confused. Very confused. “Was it bad?”

Max almost choked. She shook her head furiously. “No! It was good! Very good… But I don’t think it was appropriate. Do you know what that word means?”

Another nod. “It means okay for the situation. It wasn’t okay for now? But I was excited. I always kiss Mike when I’m excited.”

Max sighed. “See that’s the thing, El. You kiss Mike. Because he’s your boyfriend. That’s what boyfriends and girlfriends do. They kiss. On the lips.”

“But because you’re not my boyfriend… I shouldn’t kiss you?”

“Exactly. I’m not your boyfriend and sometimes there are things that are just for boyfriends and girlfriends. No one else.”

She hummed in thought. “But… if you’re Lucas’s girlfriend and I’m Mike’s girlfriend, does that mean it’s a girlfriend – boyfriend thing for us too?”

Max was slowly breaking inside. This girl had so much to learn still, yet it only made Max like her more.

“Not quite. These types of things are just for you and Mike. Just you and your boyfriend, and just me and mine. It’s a thing that you do because you like someone.”

“But I like you?”

Max smiled. “Yeah, but you don’t like me like you like Mike, do you? You don’t want to grow up and get married and have kids with me, right? You don’t like me like that, right?” There was a lead feeling growing in Max’s stomach that she could explain but she also couldn’t ignore.

She frowned and shook her head. “So, I don’t kiss people on the lips who I don’t want to marry with?”

“Not even if you’re excited. And you shouldn’t kiss people at all unless you know them really well.” Max shuffled beside her and raised herself to the height where she could kiss the taller girl’s forehead. “Like that, okay?”

El nodded. “Okay.”

“I’m still proud of you, El. Very proud.”

“I know.” She smiled. “But it’s preposterous that I can’t kiss you because I’m excited.”

Max grinned back to hide the obvious frown forming. She knew she was trying to make a joke, and that was so cute of her. Max didn’t know what willed her to think that way but for some reason, she didn’t want El to only kiss her because she was excited. But she didn’t say that. She just nudged the girl’s shoulder with a small laugh.

“Yeah, it is.

**Author's Note:**

> thx bro


End file.
